


Eye on the Prize

by Doriath



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: But Definitely Ouch, Eye Injury, not too graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:59:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23406406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doriath/pseuds/Doriath
Summary: When Trina outs Tori to their parents, the younger Vega gets revenge in a most unusual way and inadvertently manages to entice Jade in the process.
Relationships: Tori Vega/Jade West
Comments: 24
Kudos: 312





	Eye on the Prize

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a weird little story that has come out of the Jori Discord. There is some significant injury to an eyeball. Not that graphically described, but I know some people are really squicky about eye injuries. Also there was about ten minutes of research behind this, so the plausibility of any of this is...hmm... just suspend your disbelief, I guess?
> 
> Thanks to imreallyhereforpieces for the title.

Jade tucked her copy of _1984_ into her locker and pulled out her biology textbook with a groan. She hated science. Dissecting things was cool, but she didn’t care about all math and formulas and how this made that work...

“Hi Jade, can you help me with something?”

“No,” she replied automatically, not even sparing Tori a glance. She shut her locker and turned to leave, but Tori grabbed her by the elbow.

“Please? I just need you to keep something in your locker.”

“No,” she repeated. “Go shove your junk in Andre’s locker or Cat’s,” she furrowed her brow. “Or Beck’s.” Her recent ex-boyfriend had specifically made mention of Tori when they'd broken up, though not quite suggesting what she was now implying. He had actually had the audacity to accuse Jade of having feelings for Tori! For Tori 'Make It Shine' Vega! With her smiles and her hugs and her optimism and her helpfulness and--

“They won’t want this in their lockers. It’s kinda gross," Tori shook her head, interrupting Jade's train of thought. "And Beck’s locker is clear.”

“If it’s gross, why would I want it in my locker?” Jade asked, though she was admittedly intrigued now.

Tori glanced around to see if anyone was paying them attention before stepping even closer to Jade and pulling something out of her monster purse. It looked to be a small plastic cup, with a lid, filled with liquid and…something floating in it?

“It’s Trina’s eye,” Tori explained.

“What?” Jade asked, certain she had heard wrong.

“It’s her prosthetic eye, well part of it. The part that comes out, obviously. Her left eye is fake. She got hurt when we were kids and she…it doesn’t matter. I stole it to punish her and that’s why she hasn’t been to school in a couple days, but she can’t miss anymore and she’s convinced it’s in my locker, which is absolutely where it’s been, but she won’t check yours.”

Jade snatched the jar from Tori, disbelieving, and examined the cup skeptically. "Why doesn't she just tell your parents?"

"They are out of town, so please? Keep this in your locker. Just for a couple hours. I'll get it at the end of the day.”

“You stole your sister’s eyeball?” Jade questioned. Even with the cup in hand, she couldn’t believe what was happening.

“Just the front part,” Tori scoffed, indignantly.

Jade just stared at her.

“Just put it in your locker and _tell no one_ ,” Tori ordered, before turning and hurrying off.

Jade spent a few more minutes examining the prosthetic eye before tucking it far back into her locker. She was grinning the whole way to biology.

* * *

Trina waited until the hallways appeared mostly empty and positioned her ginormous floppy hat just so, hoping it would cover her eyepatch until she could locate the part of her eye that Tori had stolen. Fuming she marched into the hall and straight to her sister’s locker. She twisted the dial and yanked open the door, pulling out all of her sister’s textbooks and tossing them to the floor, frantically looking for the cup, but it was nowhere to be found.

“What are you doing in Tori’s locker?” a familiar voice came from behind.

“Beck, hi!” she turned, standing at an odd angle, pulling the hat down a bit, to hide half her face.

“Why are you in Tori’s locker?” he asked again.

“Just helping my baby sister out! She has so many textbooks and, I…was organizing them for her. Tori’s such a mess, you know?” she started picking up the textbooks and putting them back into the locker.

“Uh huh,” Beck ran a hand through his hair. “Well, while I have you here, I wanted to remind you to stop calling me, please.”

“I only called because Tori had said you’d called me.”

“Why would Tori say that?”

“To trick me so she could steal…look, it doesn’t matter, OK? Besides, you and the She-Demon are on break again, right? Like breakup #3 in the last two months? Maybe time for a change?” she winked at him with her one functioning eye, the other still hidden from his view.

“Even if Tori told you that, you could see on your phone that I didn’t call,” Beck persisted.

“Ugh, what are you, a detective?” She slammed Tori’s locker and stormed off in a huff, several of Tori’s things still on the floor.

Beck frowned to himself before heading off to class himself.

* * *

**_Ten Years Earlier_ **

_“Trina! Come on! Let’s go outside! This is when the frogs are loudest and you can find them!” six year old Tori Vega pounded on the door to her parents’ bedroom, where her older sister had gone an eternity before (really, it had been about ten minutes, but when you’re six, that’s an eternity)._

_Trina opened the door with a flourish. “I’m not catching gross frogs with you, Tori.”_

_“But…” Tori protested, looking her sister up and down in confusion. Trina had pulled on some of their mother’s evening gloves and a ridiculous amount of jewelry. She had smeared bright red lipstick all over her mouth and had attempted to put on assorted makeups and fragrances with gleeful abandon._

_She pushed past Tori, clumsily making her way down the hall in their mother’s fanciest heels. “I am a lady and that is not how ladies behave,” Trina insisted._

_Tori held up her Frogs Of The World book. “I want to find a red-leg tree frog.”_

_“I don’t care,” Trina repeated, turning around at the top of the stairs and sticking her tongue out. “Go find frogs by yourself.”_

_“Dad said I can’t go outside without you,” Tori frowned._

_“Too bad,” Trina twisted away, moving to make her way down the stairs. But she was unaccustomed to walking in the way-too-big-for-her heels and tripped forward, tumbling downstairs with a shriek followed by a blood-curdling scream._

_Tori dropped her book and ran down the stairs after her sister, horrified to find Trina at the bottom of the stairs screaming with a stiletto heel jabbed into her eye._

_Tori wasn’t sure what to do, so she grabbed the shoe and yanked it out, but that only caused Trina to scream harder._

_Tori ran to the phone and tried to call her neighbor Mrs. Foster who they were supposed to call in case of emergencies, but she didn’t answer. She tried her father and her mother’s numbers as well, but neither of them picked up. Trina was screaming at her to call the doctor but her parents always said not to call 911 if they weren’t home because they might get in trouble for not being home._

_It was nearly a half hour before her father finally called back, angrily, wondering why she hadn’t called Mrs. Foster. Tori was bawling into the phone and he could hardly make out what she was saying, but between her meltdown and Trina’s wailing in the back, he knew it couldn’t wait and he rushed home._

_Trina lost the eye and their parents didn’t leave them home alone for nearly two years after that, but eventually things did return to normal and the girls were left to their own devices more often than not.  
_

_Where Trina might have become leery of high-heeled shoes after such an experience, she instead became more determined than ever to conquer them completely._

* * *

Tori was fidgeting at her desk while the teacher droned on about the history of technicolor film, glancing at the clock.

She’d stolen Trina’s eye on Monday night. Now it was Wednesday. And she was starting to feel guilty about it. Like, _really_ guilty.

_Sunday had been a disastrous day in the Vega house. Her parents were fighting again, with each other and with Trina, who was flunking her math class. “Hollywood Arts shouldn’t even have math class,” Trina insisted. “With talent like mine, who needs it?”_

_“It’s still a high school, Trina. You have to graduate. I don’t care how talented you think you are, you need to pass your classes because we aren’t paying for you to repeat a grade just because you are too lazy to do the work.”_

_Trina grumbled something about how Tori wasn’t doing so hot in her Creative Writing class._

_“I’m not failing,” Tori interrupted. “I even stayed after school twice last week for extra help with the teacher, so it’ll be fine.”_

_“Extra help,” Trina scoffed. “Fifty minutes a day wasn’t enough time to ogle Ms. Reynolds?”_

_“I am not ogling the teacher!” Tori snapped._

_“Why would Tori be ogling Ms. Reynolds?”_

_“I mean, she’s pretty hot, Dad. I’m not gay, but like…she keeps it tight,” Trina explained._

_David and Holly Vega both turned their attention to Tori then._

_Tori gulped. “I mean, she is pretty, sure, now that you mention it, but I just need help with my final project. I am not... ogling her.”_

_Her mother frowned. “I thought you maybe had a…thing…for that one friend of yours, the dark-haired girl with the attitude? But…if you are thinking that way about women in general…”_

_“Oh my God…”_

_“Then it’s the priest you’ll need to talk to, as soon as your mother and I get back from Cancun,” David interjected. “And Trina, you are going to get a math tutor.”_

_“The priest?!” Tori stammered._

_"Priests don't like it when ladies ogle ladies," Trina explained._

_"Stop staying ogle," Tori growled._

_“Yes, Father Martinez knows how to deal with this sort of nonsense," her father replied. "Why don’t you date your friend Beck? He's a nice young man, strong, unemotional. He'd be good for you."  
_

_“He’s kind of feminine looking, even,” Holly offered. “Maybe that will help?”_

_“Oh my God,” Tori repeated._

_Sure enough, her father was on the phone with the priest after dinner and her mother was emailing the principal to get Tori transferred out of Creative Writing._

_"I can't believe you outed me!" she hissed at Trina when they retreated to their rooms._

_"Please, they already knew they just didn't want to face it."_

_"I didn't want them to face it either!"_

_"Ugh, please, Tori, it's not like you're subtle. You were literally feeling up Jade in the living room last month right in front of me and Shapiro. Like, if I hadn't flocked him, Robbie would have had a hard-on watching you two."_

_"Oh my God, Trina!" Tori glowered, storming into her bedroom and slamming the door._

Now Tori was starting to regret her impulsive decision to snatch the prosthetic when Trina was cleaning it Monday night. She'd lied to her sister, claiming that Beck had texted wondering why Trina wasn't answering her phone, which of course sent the older Vega hurrying downstairs to grab said-phone and call Beck back-- leaving her rarely-unattended eye free for the taking.

Tori had never snatched her sister's eye before. She'd threatened to tell people about it, sure. Trina, vain as she was, wanted no one to know, so that threat was generally sufficient, when Tori was riled enough to feel compelled to threaten.

But she was just...so angry for Trina outing her out of nowhere, for no reason. For getting her kicked out of a class that she was probably in fact failing, but Ms. Reynolds was ridiculously hot and now she had to talk to Father Martinez and that was bound to be awful and she was just...so mad.

Trina was furious with her Monday night, screaming and trying to shove her way into Tori's room-- Tori had pushed the dresser in front of her door so Trina couldn't get in. Eventually she stopped, assuming she'd have it back by morning, Tori was never that vicious, and had she seen Trina in the morning, she probably would have given in and returned it to her, but she got up extra early and was out the door before Trina woke, taking the bus to school with a change of clothes and a plan to spend the night at Cat's to avoid Trina as long as possible.

So Trina didn't come to school and instead tore the house apart trying to find her eye-- surely Tori hadn't taken it with her, but of course, that's exactly what she'd done.

Now it was Wednesday and Trina had called, growling over the phone that she was coming in and Tori was going to give it back or she was going to pay.

She hadn't told anyone about it, except Jade...which was probably a terrible mistake.

God, she felt awful. Jade herself had even seemed shocked. How bad did it have to be for Jade West to think you were nuts?

Tori sunk in her chair.

* * *

Jade couldn’t focus in biology. Her PearPhone was strategically positioned under her textbook and she was reading all about glass eyes and imagining what had happened to Trina-- hoping it has been something gruesome and traumatic and not just some boring disease-- and what the older Vega had done to upset Tori to the point that she’d stolen her eye. Had to be extreme, right? Stealing someone’s eye was…damn…that was hardcore. She would have never thought Tori Vega had it in her.

Sure, Vega had a mean streak and she came up with revenge schemes that were...elaborate, to say the least. But this was a level of creepy that Jade could not help but admire. She couldn't help but wonder how she'd missed this side of Tori before. She couldn't help but think maybe Beck knew about this side of Tori and maybe that's why he'd said what he said?

She was also positively giddy with the thought that she had Trina Vega's fake eye in her locker at that very moment, so much so that when class let out, rather than heading straight to Sikowitz's as she usually did, she headed back to her locker to have a look.

She slowed her step when she saw Trina pacing back and forth in front of Tori's locker, wearing a giant purple floppy hat, strategically slanted down to cover her left eye. Jade tried not to stare, but desperately wanted to see what Trina's eye looked like without the piece that was floating in the cup in her locker.

Trina made eye contact with her then, and her expression changed. Jade couldn't quite put her finger on what it was though. She looked angry, then maybe...excited? Then she was marching toward her, floppy hat and outrageous heels, and Jade knew she wasn't going to have time to look in her locker now without being late for class.

"Jade."

"Don't talk to me."

"Just thought you should know something interesting about my sister."

"Been learning lots about Vega today," Jade remarked, still moving to pass Trina.

"Uh huh, well, she's in love with you. Maybe also with Ms. Reynolds. But mostly you. I would think you'd have noticed, but Tori seems to think it was some huge secret, so...there. Tell her I told you. And tell her to give me what is mine or I'm going to tell a lot more people."

Jade stood in the hall, speechless, as Trina marched away defiantly and the bell chimed to announce the start of sixth period.

* * *

Tori was waiting anxiously by Jade's locker at the end of the day, still trying to figure out how to return the eye to Trina without incurring any further wrath. It had been an unpleasant week for both of them and it was time to let bygones be bygones, which was not something Trina was ever good about.

"Vega." Jade nodded curtly as she approached. "You sister was sniffing around here earlier. Saying things."

"Saying things?" Tori looked confused. "What things?"

"A lot of things."

"Jade..."

"About you. And me. And Ms. Reynolds. And...feelings. Of yours."

"Um..." Tori blanched. "Look, she's obviously trying to get back at me for taking her eye and--"

"Why did you take it? That seems...extreme."

"I just...you know what? I didn't have a good reason. I shouldn't have done it. It was cruel and awful and I'm going to give it back and you are not going to utter a word of this whole fiasco to anyone ever. Now open your locker."

Jade frowned. "Fine, but only because I want to. You know," she took an uneccessarily long time twisting the combination dial. "I was impressed. I mean, stealing someone eye..."

"Shhh! Jade!" Tori hissed, stepping closer. "Someone might hear you."

"Beck accused me of having a crush on you when we broke up, this last time. And I was...I mean...that's ridiculous. You're...you know... _you_."

"You're too sweet," Tori sneered. "Open the damn locker."

"But then, today, with this whole eye-in-a-jar thing," Jade tilted her head to the side and gave Tori a funny look. "I don't know. Suddenly I feel like I'm seeing you in a whole new light."

"Uh..."

But before she could answer, a shrill voice echoed through the halls.

"VICTORIA MANUELA MARIA DE LA SANTA CRUZ ROSALINA ANGELINA VALENCIA RODRIGUEZ LUPE VEGA!"

"Are those all you?" Jade looked at Tori, who wasn't paying her any attention at this point.

"Look, Trina," Tori started, holding her hands up in surrender. "I think we should just calm down and call a truce. We're even now."

"EVEN? YOU THINK WE'RE EVEN?" Trina was fuming, but was still trying very hard to look fierce with half her face hidden by the floppy purple hat. It did not work that well.

"You started this. But I think we've both learned our lesson." Tori looked around warily at the crowd they were drawing.

"No, what you did was way worse. You having the hots for Beck's Banshee Bitch here is hardly a secret!"

Jade frowned at that. "Beck's Banshee Bitch?"

"This is all great, Trina!" Tori suddenly called, clasping her hands together. "Everyone, you've just seen a sneak peak of Trina's new one-woman show!"

Trina scowled, finally noticing the crowd. "Get lost!" she screamed, flailing around and sending students scurrying off until most of them were far enough away that she could hiss out a harsh whisper without them listening in. "Where is it?"

"Your eye?" Jade asked then, holding the cup up.

Trina and Tori both gasped; the former at the betrayal of her sister having told someone, and the latter at the betrayal of Jade having revealed her own betrayal.

"Tori gave it to me. It's mine now. For my collection," she swiftly tucked it into her bag.

"Wait, I--" Tori started.

"Give. It. Back," Trina growled.

"It's kind of an odd romantic gesture, but she _did_ say if I went on a date with her, I could keep it, so..." Jade shrugged, hoisting her book bag onto her shoulder. "Pick me up at 7, Vega."

"I, um..." Tori stammered some more.

"Tori _you_ _did not_ ," Trina glared at her.

Jade dropped a feather-light kiss on Tori's cheek before making her way for the door.

"Do...you think she's serious?" Tori asked, seemingly in a daze. "If I let her keep it, she'll go out with me?"

"TORI! It's my eye!"

"You have another one."


End file.
